By Alkali Springs Correspondent
During this mild winter, we must say that never around our tiny Bear Paw Lake cabin have we seen so many deer. It is like the whitetail are having a winter long convention and many mulies are joining in the celebration as well.
Of course most we see in our headlights we leave or get to the cabin during darkness. However, looking out of our windows most any time during the day and there they are again.
The meadows around Bear Paw Lake have been sort of a white tail haven for a number of years now so it is not unusual to see some of them each trip around the lake, particularly as the sun goes down or is just coming up. However, their numbers seem to be on the increase and most dramatically. We noticed it with last year's birthing season and since then they have grown even more. It is as if white tail are telling other white tail this is a great place for home. You come and try it too.
Not only that but it seems the white tail are inviting mule deer to share this great place to live as well. Either that or the mulies are playing the part of interlopers and cashing in on the white tails' good fortune. Never did we ever see many mule deer in that area. These days though their numbers seem to be increased as well.
And we always knew there were plenty of coyotes in that area. We hear them serenade us to sleep each night. Well, maybe that is a slight stretch but most nights they call and call. So beautiful for everyone except the dog who thinks he should be joining them. Join them is just what would happen to. Join them for a meal that is and he would be the meal.
What got us going on coyotes was that recently on two occasions we have seen them short cutting across Bear Paw Lake on their way somewhere. Crafty animals those coyotes. They know full well the advantage of a short cut in their day but they surely don't like to be seen so vulnerable as crossing that lake in the open. When seen, they eye us suspiciously and scamper even faster to the shelter of willows and old cat tails on the shore. So beautiful. Little do they know just how much they have made our day by their clever shortcut.
You know gentle readers that one thing we have ranted and railed about year after year is that ridiculous term called wind chill, that when hearing it would make no one at all want to live in these parts.
So far all We do is rant and rave and never hear from anyone else who wants to abandon it before it destroys this country.
Imagine our surprise when reading the Hungry Horse News from Columbia Falls the other day and columnist G. George Ostrom was talking about the same thingwind chill. May we quote with your permission?
"Longtime readers know of this writer's disrespect for the government's so called wind chill index' I've grown so used to making jokes, I may suffer withdrawal systems when the Federal weather guessers give it up. The first time I saw an official wind chill factor' on a weather report, I called and asked them to explain. Ray Hall was manning the old station and he said:
George, they can't explain it to me so I can't explain it to you.' Wound up calling Washington D.C. and got the most illogical bunch of gobbley-gook ever uttered by a high paid civil servant.
The concept originated with army guys who had nothing better to do in the 1940s and eventually filtered down to the U.S. Weather Bureau whose leaders thought it would make their already unscientific work seem more complex.
Modern researchers and engineers with the American Meteorological Society are asking the government to knock it off.
Scientists at Purdue University say the wind chill reporting does a public disservice by sending out misleading ideas and information. They say varying air temperatures and wind speeds can make the stated wind chill factor 10 to 15 degrees colder than reality.
Remember, wind chill' is based on how cold it is estimated to be on bare skin' using a secret formula utilizing temperature and wind readings. One of my most helpful suggestions to the weather bureau was they just disseminate such bunk to streakers and skinny dippers."
"
The next big meeting on wind chill' is in May. It takes a long time for any bureau to admit an error. I figure we must continue dealing with the useless wind chill factor' until July 10, 2009.
We rest our case. this mild winter, we must say that never around our tiny Bear Paw Lake cabin have we seen so many deer. It is like the whitetail are having a winter long convention and many mulies are joining in the celebration as well.
Of course most we see in our headlights we leave or get to the cabin during darkness. However, looking out of our windows most any time during the day and there they are again.
The meadows around Bear Paw Lake have been sort of a white tail haven for a number of years now so it is not unusual to see some of them each trip around the lake, particularly as the sun goes down or is just coming up. However, their numbers seem to be on the increase and most dramatically. We noticed it with last year's birthing season and since then they have grown even more. It is as if white tail are telling other white tail this is a great place for home. You come and try it too.
Not only that but it seems the white tail are inviting mule deer to share this great place to live as well. Either that or the mulies are playing the part of interlopers and cashing in on the white tails' good fortune. Never did we ever see many mule deer in that area. These days though their numbers seem to be increased as well.
And we always knew there were plenty of coyotes in that area. We hear them serenade us to sleep each night. Well, maybe that is a slight stretch but most nights they call and call. So beautiful for everyone except the dog who thinks he should be joining them. Join them is just what would happen to. Join them for a meal that is and he would be the meal.
What got us going on coyotes was that recently on two occasions we have seen them short cutting across Bear Paw Lake on their way somewhere. Crafty animals those coyotes. They know full well the advantage of a short cut in their day but they surely don't like to be seen so vulnerable as crossing that lake in the open. When seen, they eye us suspiciously and scamper even faster to the shelter of willows and old cat tails on the shore. So beautiful. Little do they know just how much they have made our day by their clever shortcut.
You know gentle readers that one thing we have ranted and railed about year after year is that ridiculous term called wind chill, that when hearing it would make no one at all want to live in these parts.
So far all We do is rant and rave and never hear from anyone else who wants to abandon it before it destroys this country.
Imagine our surprise when reading the Hungry Horse News from Columbia Falls the other day and columnist G. George Ostrom was talking about the same thingwind chill. May we quote with your permission?
"Longtime readers know of this writer's disrespect for the government's so called wind chill index' I've grown so used to making jokes, I may suffer withdrawal systems when the Federal weather guessers give it up. The first time I saw an official wind chill factor' on a weather report, I called and asked them to explain. Ray Hall was manning the old station and he said:
George, they can't explain it to me so I can't explain it to you.' Wound up calling Washington D.C. and got the most illogical bunch of gobbley-gook ever uttered by a high paid civil servant.
The concept originated with army guys who had nothing better to do in the 1940s and eventually filtered down to the U.S. Weather Bureau whose leaders thought it would make their already unscientific work seem more complex.
Modern researchers and engineers with the American Meteorological Society are asking the government to knock it off.
Scientists at Purdue University say the wind chill reporting does a public disservice by sending out misleading ideas and information. They say varying air temperatures and wind speeds can make the stated wind chill factor 10 to 15 degrees colder than reality.
Remember, wind chill' is based on how cold it is estimated to be on bare skin' using a secret formula utilizing temperature and wind readings. One of my most helpful suggestions to the weather bureau was they just disseminate such bunk to streakers and skinny dippers."
"The next big meeting on wind chill' is in May. It takes a long time for any bureau to admit an error. I figure we must continue dealing with the useless wind chill factor' until July 10, 2009.
We rest our case.
